Vera Wang Spring 2013 Ready-to-Wear Collection Review — Out of India

According to the liner notes, Vera Wang’s Spring 2013 Ready-to-Wear Collection was a nod to the romantic beauty and sensuality of India. Highlighting a deliberate play on texture, print, and proportion, the lifestyle powerhouse, demonstrated once again why she’s a perennial fashion week favorite. What I’ve always loved most about Vera Wang’s aesthetic is how unencumbered her design approach is. Her pieces embody a utilitarian chic—a streamlined Bermuda, a languid pajama pant, a flowing dancing skirt, or a corseted tulip skirt is often paired with a more ornate tunic, a high-low hem top, a cut-away jacket, or a strapless portrait collar bodice. The shape of a collar, the placement of jeweled epaulettes, and the intricacy of hand-pieced lace all draw the eye upward only to frame the shoulders, collarbone, and face, which is incredibly flattering and feminine.

The collection’s 39 (predominantly monochromatic) looks opened with white before shifting to azure, navy, amethyst, cypress, chartreuse, and closing with gold. I rather enjoyed the flow; these pieces were presented just as they would be hung in my closet, keeping items within the same color family, which I find less jarring and distracting because it imposes less of a strain on the eye to follow the natural flow, allowing the audience time to focus onsilhouette, construction, and design detail.

While Vera Wang incorporated traditional design elements of the tunic, choli jacket, and Nehru collar in stunning Indian damasks and brocades, the palette underscored a very au courant sensibility, especially with the use of moodier blues, greens, and golds. The juxtaposition of soutache embroidery, jeweled accents, and a hammered bullion technique against delicate layers of lace, sumptuous silk faille, and the sportier yet refined cotton eyelet gave the collection anenhanced tactility and dimensionality while side vents, cropped jackets, draped portrait collars, and corseted peplums modernized the designer’s initial inspiration.